Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-06-15
THE HEAVENS OPENED
ANAGNIFICBNE DISCUSSION BY RBY. DR.,
TALMAGE
An Illustration Of A Bible S0yStsphm Gazing
Into HsaYsn-LOOkins At Ohrist-SOnsd
Stephen In His Dying Prayer Asleep
The Divine Shows Five Pictures
Special telegram 10 ne Regia4.

sages of Scripture, after which the eOngre-
CATION sang the favorite hymn: 'There is
Rest for the Weary" The reverend
doctors text was Acts vn, $500: BE
hold. see the heavens opeNed and the Son
of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with 4 loud voice and
stopped their ears, and rars upon him with
one accord and cast him out of the city and
stoned him and the witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young mans feet, whose
name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen,
calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. And he kneeled down
and cried with loud voice: Lord lay not
this sin to their charge. a. I'D when he had
said this he fell asleep"
The preacher said
Stephen had been preaching
Rous1Ne sERsoN,
and the people could not Stand it. They
resolved to do as men soSntimes would
like to do in this day, if they dared, with
some preacher of righteopsAess-kill him.
The only way to silence this man was to
knock the breath out him. So they rushed
Stephen out of the gates o. the city, and
with curse, and whOop, ard below, they
brought him to the cliff, as was the custom
when they wanted to take away life by
stoning. Having brought aim to the edge
of the cliff they pushed him of. After he
had fallen they came and looked down,
and seeing that he was not yet dead, they
began to drop stones upon him, stone after
stone, stone after stone. Amid this horri-
BILE rain of missiles Stephen chambers up
on his knees and folds his hands, while
the blood drips from ibis temples to his
cheeks, from his cheeks TO his garments,
from his garments TO the ground; and
then, looking up, he makes two prayers
one for himself and one for his murderers
Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit" that was
for himself. lord, lay not this sin on
their CHARGE" that was for his assailants.
Then, from pain from lDss of blood, he
swOoned away and fell asleep.
want to show you today five pictures.
Stephen gazing into heaven. Stephen
looking at Christ. Stephen stoned.
Stephen in his dying prayer. Stephen
asleep.
First, look at
STEPHEN GAZING INTO HEAVEN.
Before you take a leap you want to
know where you are going to land. Before
You climb ladder you want to know to
what point the ladder reaches. And it
was right that Stephen within few mo-
ments of heaven, should be gazing into it.
We would all do we'll to be found in the
same posture. There is CROUCH in heaven
to keep us gazing. A man Of large wealth
may have statuary in the hall, and paint
ings in the sitting room, and works of art
in all parts of the house, bet he has the
chief pictures in the art gallery, and there
hour after hour you walk with catalogue
and glass and ever increasi ng admiration.
Well, heaven is the gallery where God has
gathered the chief treasures Of His realm.
The whole universe is His palace. In this
lower room where we stOp!there are many
adornments; tessellated fiobr of amethyst
and blossom, and on the winding cloud
stairs are stretched ont canvas on
which cOmmingle azure, aud purple, and
saffron, and gold. But heaven is the
gallery in which the chief glOries are
gathered. There are the brightest robes.
There are the richest crowns. There are
the highest EXPLANATIONS John says of it:
1.-THE kings of the earth shall bring their
honor and glory into it." And l see the
procession forming, and in the line come
all empires, and the stars spring up into
an arch for the hosts to march under.
They keep step to the sound of earthquake
and the pitch of avalanche from the noun
tains, and the flag they be " is the flame Of
a consuming world, and Ill heaven turns
out with harps and trumpets and myriad
voiced reclamation of angelic dominion to
welcome them in, and so the kings of the
earth bring their honor and glory into it.
Do you wonder that good people often
stand like Stephen, looking into heaven?
We have a great many friends there.
There is not a man in this house to-day so
isolated in life but there is .. w..
SOME ONE IN HEAVEN
with whom he once shook hands. As a
man gets older, the number Of his celestial
acquaintance very rapidly multiplies. We
have not had one glimpse Of them since the
night we kissed them goOd-by and they
went away; but still we stand gazing at
heaven. As when some of our friends 90
across the sea, we stand on the dock, or on
the steam tug, and watch them, and after
awhile the hulk of the vessel disappears,
and then there is only a patch of sail on
the sky, and soon that is gone, and they
are all out OF sight, and yet we stand look
ing in the same direction; so when our
friends go away from us into the future
world we keep looking down through the
NarrOws, and gazing and gazing as though
we expected thatlthey would come out and
stand on some evening cloud, and give us
one glimpse of their blissful and transfig-
ured faces. While you long to Join their
compinionship, and the years and the
days go with such tedium that they break
your heart, and the viper of pain, and
sorrow, and bereavement keeps gnawing at
your vitals, you still stand, like Stephen,
gazing into heaven. You wonder
if they have changed since you saw them
last. YOu wonder if they would recoc-
nize your face now, so changed has it been
with trouble. You wonder if, amid the
myriad delights they have, they care as
much for you as they used to when they
gave you helping hand and put their
shoulder undery burdens. You wonder
If they look any older; and sometimes, in
the eyening-tide, when the house is all
quiet, yOu wonder if You should call them
by their first name if they would answer;
and perhaps You do sometime make the
and when no one but God and
yourself are there yon distinctly call their
names, and listen, and wait, and sit gaz-
ing into heaven.
Pass on now and see
STEPHEN LOOKING UPON CHRIST.
My text says he saw the Son of Man at the
right hand of God. Just how Christ looked
in this world, just how He looks in heaven
we cannot say. A writer in the time OF
Christ Gays, describing the Saviour's per-
sonal appearance, that He had blue eyes
and light complexion and very graceful
structure; but / suppose il was all guess
work. The painters of the different ages
have tried to imagine the features of Christ
and put them upon canvas; but we will
have to wait until with our own eyes we
see Him and with our own ears We can
hear Him. And yet there is way ofsee-
ing and bearing Him now. l have to tell